Have you heard of fresh sea cucumber before? Recently, I was introduced to an all natural and fresh sea cucumber supplier from Mersing, Johor. A family run business, Perniagaan Hasil Laut Hong (宏海产贸易(海参)have been in business for more than 40 years processing fresh sea cucumber. Their customers are mainly local folks in Mersing and Singaporeans.

The sample of 1kg fresh sea cucumber sent to me was the Topaz sea cucumber or known as 黄玉参 in Chinese. They are also one of the best quality sea cucumber mainly produced in the South China Sea. Sea cucumber is a highly valued seafood product in Chinese cuisine. Rich in collagen and having zero cholesterol, people of all ages enjoy eating this exotic dish.Long known for its healing properties, and widely used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat cancer, cure arthritis/joint pain, boost the immune system, constipation and a long list of other ailments. Rich in chondroitin sulphate, triterpene glycosides, and contains protein, fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc, as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B3 & C, no doubt these sea animals are prized food for us all.

Dried Sea CucumberStuart Dee/The Image Bank/Getty Images

The picture above shows dried version of sea cucumber and the one right below shows the all-natural and fresh sea cucumber I received from Perniagaan Hasil Laut Hong in Mersing, Johor.

Fresh & All Natural Sea Cucumber

Although I do enjoy eating sea cucumber for its health properties but I have never gotten myself to cook and prepare a dish with it. One of the main reason is that I find the process of boiling, soaking and rinsing for several hours prior to cooking too tedious and troublesome. Apart from that, due to lack of knowledge on choosing the good grade sea cucumber has deterred me to serving this seafood at home.

My 1KG Worth Of 黄玉参 Sea Cucumber

Size XL - RM 130

I was told that their sea cucumbers are being processed traditionally with natural making process. No chemical additive is added. They are being processed right after caught by diving, followed by packaging and freezing. After defrosting for merely less than half an hour, they are ready for cooking.

Perniagaan Hasil Laut Hong sold all their product in 1kg packaging. Customers choose from three sizes ~ M (RM 110), L (RM 120) and XL (RM 130) per kg respectively. All prices are quoted excluding shipping fees of RM 15 for the first kg and an extra of RM2 for every subsequent kg.

Soaking In Water Just Before Cooking To Defrost It

They arrive in frozen form and it took me less than 20 minutes for them to defrost before cooking. It's so easy and convenient when cooking with fresh sea cucumber as they don't require the soaking or boiling at all. Oh yes, you can store them in your freezer up to at least a year if you have no plan to eat it for now.

Braised Sea Cucumber With Roast Pork Leg, Mushroom & Broccoli

Well, I'm both happy and excited to share with my readers on one of favourite home cooked dish of Braised Sea Cucumber With Roast Pork Leg, Mushroom and Broccoli.

Fresh Ingredients

Steamed Broccoli

Cooking this awesome tasty and authentic Chinese braised dish should not be intimating. All you need is some good grade fresh sea cucumber and dried shiitake mushroom, and the rest of the ingredients are just some garlic, shallot, and young ginger. The steamed broccoli is to be served along side with the main braised dish.

Premium Grade Of Soaked Shiitake Mushroom

These are premium grade shiitake mushroom I bought from NSK for RM 100 per kg. I purchased around 200gm for this dish. It's important to use good quality mushroom as it will impart the perfect umami flavour to the braised dish.

2 Pieces Fresh Sea Cucumber (500gm)

I only used the half portion of the frozen sea cucumber for this dish and intend to use the rest for stir-frying and perhaps my steamboat dinner.

Fresh Sea Cucumber & Roasted Pork Legs/Bones

Sea cucumber works best when cooked with flavourful braised or stew dishes. In their natural form they does not carry any flavour nor taste, instead, it readily absorbs the taste and smell of the broth and ingredients that it is cooked with, making it a flavourful dish indeed.

Cleanse & Cut Portion - Ready For The Pot

Check out the thick and chunky bite size pieces of the fresh sea cucumber.

Step 2 - Add in the roasted pork leg and mushroom, mixed well with the rest of the ingredients. Season well with the premium oyster sauce, light soy sauce, salt and pepper for taste. Pour in enough water to braise the dish till soft and well-cooked.

I used a pressure cooker for most of the dishes especially for soup, stew and braise as it's an excellent way to cut short my cooking time. For this dish, it just took a mere 15 minutes to get the work done as compared to usual 45 minutes to an hour of cooking time.

Step 3 - The chunky fresh sea cucumber goes in last. You need not cook too long as it's fresh form in which I cooked it for 5 minutes in my pressure cooker.

Voila! All done in 20 minutes - the pork and mushroom have softened with full-of-flavour sea cucumber soaking up the sauce.

Lovely Mouth-Watering Home Cooked Dish

Braised Sea Cucumber With Roast Pork Leg, Mushroom & Broccoli

The next best thing about this amazing dish is that it's oh-so-simple to cook as braising really a wonderful way to get the most flavour out of simple ingredients with minimum effort!

My hubby who is a fan of sea cucumber finds that 黄玉参 Sea Cucumber is much more spongey in texture and chewy with more bite as compared to the dried ones. It's less fishy and you gets more bite with each piece.

I find the fresh黄玉参 Sea Cucumber an excellent choice and alternative to eating the dried ones. Saves lots of time and efforts (in order to skip the soak) and you can be assured of tasting fresh and cleaned sea cucumber for your dishes.

Now when you have learned how to eat sea cucumber, it is high time to try making this seafood delicacy at your kitchen and enjoy 100% natural sea cucumber in any of your home cooked dishes.

In order to facilitate orders from other states, Perniagaan Hasil Laut Hong now provides 'Online Purchase Services' to save the need of travelling all the way to their shop.

Orders can be placed thru their FaceBook through FB Message or you can contact them directly at office telephone no 07-799 6693 or residence no 07 - 799 1208.

1 comment:

Have you heard of fresh sea cucumber before? Recently, I was introduced to an all natural and fresh sea cucumber supplier from Mersing, Johor. A family run business, Perniagaan Hasil Laut Hong (宏海产贸易(海参) have been in business for more than 40 years processing fresh sea cucumber.The sample of 1kg fresh sea cucumber sent to me was the Topaz sea cucumber (黄玉参) & are also one of the best quality sea cucumber mainly produced in the South China Sea.They're easy to prepare for cooking as no boiling, soaking or rinsing is required, just defrost & it's ready for cooking.Sharing here one of favourite home cooked dish of Braised Sea Cucumber With Roast Pork Leg, Mushroom and Broccoli.

About Me

Full Time Mother, Retired Auntie & Part Time Blogger. Started blog writing about food & travels 4 years ago at the age of 50. Know nuts about Blog, Facebook, Instagram & social media.

Inspired by my eldest daughter who's a lifestyle blogger to start my own blog who taught me everything from scratch. Not easy but fun to pick up a new skill & starts learning when getting old. My daughter, Carmen Hong, an avid photographer, also taught me how to take awesome food photos for my food posts.

Passion drives & I truly enjoyed doing reviews, food-tasting, meeting up with people at any events & last but not least, I have made lots of new friends from the blogger's community who calls me affectionately by the name of "Auntie Lilly".

During this time, my Food Blog has received the following recognitions:-

Year 2015 ~ Listed as the Top 10 Malaysian Food Bloggers To Guide Our Food Adventures With Reliable Reviews in Vulcan Post Malaysia